NGC 4945

NGC 4945 is a barred spiral galaxy located 11.7 million light years away from the Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. It is visible near the stars Xi¹ Centauri and Xi² Centauri. It was discovered in 1826 by James Dunlop. It is similar to the Milky Way, but has an energetic Seyfert 2 nucleus that may have a supermassive black hole. The galaxy has a disk of dust, gas, and many star clusters.^[1] It has a mass of about 1.4×10^11 M_☉.

Picture taken by ESO of the galaxy

NGC 4945 has two supernovae observed: SN 2005af (Type II, magnitude 12.8)^[2] and SN 2011ja (Type IIP, magnitude 14).^[3]

Galaxy group

NGC 4945 is one of the brightest galaxies of the Centaurus A/M83 Group, a big, nearby group of galaxies. The galaxy is the second brightest galaxy in the subgroup centered on Centaurus A.^[4][5]